by Eden
Some people end up dead because of Valentina’s now-cursed camera and there are doll doppelgangers that sometimes come alive. Yes, trying to explain it, it all sounds silly but the comic blends what’s real and what’s not in such a masterful way.
In Jean-Claude Forest’s Barbarella, the title character is a young Earth woman adventuring her way through the universe, encountering various problems and new sexual partners along the way. It’s deeply weird and more fun than I expected.
Modesty Blaise (1966, directed by Joseph Losey) is fun enough if you pretend it’s not related to the comic strip, other than the name and the general concept. It’s still not entirely successful on its own but that makes it less disappointing. And that’s “less disappointing.” It’s still a disappointing movie overall.
The cartoons don’t really have a consistent plot or characters (some are given names but most are not) but give glimpses into a boarding school where the girls are nothing but trouble.
The comic strip is weird, delightful and fun and I don’t understand is how much this film serial completely misunderstands what makes Brenda Starr a great heroine.